Trying a low carb diet.....Please Help!

Strawberry_Kiss

Hi All,
Im a 25 year old female and my weight has always been up and down but i am at my heaviest now 12 stone and my lowest was 8 stone but was far too thin for my 5ft 7 frame. I am trying to start a low carb diet to help me lose weight and more importantly to stop my cravings for sweets and chocolate etc which are my biggest down falls and are the cause of my weight gains.

I have spent the past few days looking over the threads in this forum and i have tried some of the recipes for soup and low carb cheese cake and taco bake and have more to try.

Im on day 4 and thank god today my cravings seem to really have subsided (the past 3 days i had to have a cup of cocoa aswell as some dark chocolate because the cravings were notorious) today tho i had a 25g bar of 70% solids dark choc just wondering is that too much?? And also how long before i can start seeing weightloss??

And finally anyone know any nice sauces i could make or buy to go with meat. I cannot seem to find anything in the supermarket but then again im not sure what i should be looking for. I heard that to go for stuff that is at most 8g carbs out of 100g is this correct??

Any help is much appreciated as im on a low budget but really want to lose weight and keep it off.

Karlitto

Heya,

Have you checked the atkins?

I have lost nearly 4 stone in 7 weeks now.

It is the perfect low carb diet, as I love meat

Now, thing is, its not so much "carbs" you need to watch out for when looking at the back of a packet of food, but moreso the carbs which are sugars.

Basically, you should try to keep below 12-15g of carbs per day, not per item.

I know its hard, but you need to cut out all bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and sweets.

Anything that has sugar in it will hold you back.

Take a look on the atkins and do your homework on it, you will start to see results after about 2 days (because your body stores a "reserve tank" of carbs of about 2 days of a supply)

It can be very bland, but well worth it.

Basically, you want to have meat, meat, meat and more meat. Fat is ok to have, aslong as it is "good" fat.

But basically, if you stick to smaller portions of the following, you will be fine.

The dark green veg ke asparagus, broccoli, leek etc.
All meat (except cured meats such as sliced cooked ham etc as these are uaully pumped with sugar water to bulk up)
Eggs
Small amounts of cheese
Black tea or coffee, no alchohol and lots and lots of water.

This is a very very basic list, they have a full list of "ok" foods per phase, check it out on atkins.

Gaz

Karlitto wrote: »

I have lost nearly 4 stone in 7 weeks now.

Thats about 8lbs a week , the recommended is 1-2 a week. You are probably losing tonnes of muscle. I would re-think your approach if I was you.

Miss Fluff

I'm not a fan of Atkins as I think it is totally unsustainable and it can't possibly be healthy to cut out an entire food group, especially when doing a lot of exercise. While I applaud you on your weightloss I think 4 stone in seven weeks is far too much too soon. OP if your weakness is chocolate and sweets don't you think you'd be better controlling your calories and having a little of what you fancy rather than being so stict?

Orla K

I wouldn't be the biggest fan of atkins but to be fair to it you do reintroduce carbs into your diet so it doesn't cut out any food group and it's better/healthier than some weight loss groups that are far more popular.

Miss Fluff

I totally agree Orla. And I think following a lower or healthy carb/low GI option is really beneficial and healthy and sustainable in the long term. But that's cutting them down rather than out. I think with the Atkins what happens is a lot of people once they reintroduce carbs just go totally baloobas and end up binging on all the things they cut out and thus putting on all the weight they lost twice as quick as they shed it. I feel the message that ALL carbs are the enemy, even healthy slow-release ones like porridge, is an askewed one. Better to make permanent and sustainable changes rather than drastic or crash options only to find it hard to keep on track.

dahat

The thing with carb's is to root out the bad ones and keep the good ones.

I personally have porridge every morning,portion of pasta(brown) 3 times weekly and use oatcakes with tea as a treat.I am comfortable using these carbs and have totally elimated anything white based from my diet.
Small and proper portions of these will help you alot with weight loss once the other bits of your diet are in order........

El_Dangeroso

Miss Fluff wrote: »

I totally agree Orla. And I think following a lower or healthy carb/low GI option is really beneficial and healthy and sustainable in the long term. But that's cutting them down rather than out. I think with the Atkins what happens is a lot of people once they reintroduce carbs just go totally baloobas and end up binging on all the things they cut out and thus putting on all the weight they lost twice as quick as they shed it. I feel the message that ALL carbs are the enemy, even healthy slow-release ones like porridge, is an askewed one. Better to make permanent and sustainable changes rather than drastic or crash options only to find it hard to keep on track.

Do you know low GI doesn't really help with blood sugar issues at all? So sayeth a lot of studies on GI and diabetes. GI isn't a great measure of a food anyway, potatoes are high GI and they are healthy.

Atkins doesn't cut out carbs, that's functionally impossible, even meat has a small amount. There is an initial restrictive period but after that you add them back in in a systemic gradual way. People have this half-assed idea of what Atkins is and have clearly never read the book.

If you do any diet in a half-assed ill-informed fashion then it's not going to be sustainable.

By that measure any diet approach can be considered a crash diet if done in a stupid fashion.

Karlitto

I do find it quite funny about the amount of i'll informed people who have the same opinion "Atkins is bad for you etc."

Just a quick note before I get to my point, I believe one of the main issues that causes people to think atkins is bad for you is for one main reason, bad press, there has been so much "controversy" around the atkins diet due to "studies" which have been done on it. The reason being, it's free.... and the companies or people who have this crap of subscrbing for a certain amount per month, or clubs you pay for, don't like it, so, they put it down. But, let me tell you, there is a perfectly good reason it has been around and being used for about 70 odd years....thats because it works.

Now, my point for the ill informed people. You do not "cut out" carbs, you drop the level right down to a very small percent of what you would normally take in (Yes, thats right, you still eat some veg!!) you have 4 phases, Phase 1 -4. Phase 1 you drop to your lowest carb intake, and through phase 1-4 you SLOWLY bring your carb levels back up to normal.

This helps in a few areas, one you are basically taking (for the most part) away your primary source of energy (glucose [coming from carbs]) and burning your secondary (fat). Secondly, if you have high blood sugar levels, this will reduce them considerably.

Now, for the biggest point about the atkins being a "bad" diet is cholestoral

High cholestral. This is a myth (or mostly) I have been on the atkins for going on 8 weeks now, I had a full blood profile done last week as I like to monitor it just incase. Blood sugars were low at 3.3, my cholestoral HDL was 1.9, LDL was 2.2 and blood pressure was 128/77. All of this is normal, infact, its "better" than normal. Recommended are HDL + 1.0, LDL - 3.0 and glucose between 4.0 and 6.0. Blood pressure is betwee 120 and 140 / 80.

HDL = good cholestoral and LDL = bad.

The only "side effects" I find, or rather, found are the following.

Your BO/breath/pee smells bad, this is due to the enzyme in your body which breaks down fat being more abundant.

Constipation for the first week or so (counter acted by drinking water)

Fatigue in the first week

Thats it.

I strongly suggest anyone who wants to say the atkins is bad for you to do your research before criticizing it. After you do your homework, feel free to comment.

Now, with regards to my weight loss.

I was 140.6 Kg when I started which is very heavy to 115 KG +/- in 7 weeks.

Why is this such a bad thing? Many people have said that it is "too much" to loose in that period of time. But they fail to give me a reason, is this just because they heard of from someone else who heard it from someone else? Or are jelous? I don't know, but if someone is to say why loosing 4 stone in 7 weeks is "too much", please explain your reason.

I have tried tonnes of other diets which have not work, Atkins does, I don't understand why people need to try and put it/me down for sticking to it...

Karlitto

P.S. Sorry strawberry, I kinda hijacked your thread..

Karlitto

Gaz wrote: »

Thats about 8lbs a week , the recommended is 1-2 a week. You are probably losing tonnes of muscle. I would re-think your approach if I was you.

Why is 8 pounds a week too much? Please give me a reason.

Secondly, and I am not joking. Sorry for this being disgusting, but I was dying to take a poo, I mean really badly the other day, and for giggles I weight myself, took the poo and weighed myself again, I lost 800 grams, which is just under your "recommended" 2 pounds.

Who "recommends" 2 pound a week and what is the reason for it?

I am not loosing muscle as I was quite Fat to begin the diet on. Now, I am working out, due to the shear amount of protein you intake from the atkins, it would not make sense that I am loosing muscle. But, from the amount of fat I have lost I can now comfortably fit into all the cloths over the last few years that people have given me as gifts that were too small.

One downside to it is, I need to go shopping.... I actually have no trousers or jeans that fit me anymore (even with a belt) its like I am wearing clown pants.

RobAMerc

OP - read the threads on Paleo. They are more or less low carb diets in that they do away with refined sugars and low quality carbs, and it's much more sustainable in your every day life than Atkins would be.

Miss Fluff

If you're losing 8lbs a week I would be concerned about loose and flabby skin, especially when you have so much to lose and you are loosing it that quickly.

I also think, and this is not meant to offend, merely stating fact, that if you reach 140.6 Kg then you clearly have issues with food and specifically overeating. So while the weightloss must be so satisfying for you and your self esteem (and I applaud you for doing something about it), what then is to stop you reverting back to old ways once you reintroduce carbs, gradually or otherwise? Didn't they get you into trouble in the first place? Wouldn't you be better cutting out refined carbs and leaving in the healthy ones on an ongoing basis? Sure, the weightloss will be slower but you've a better chance of keeping it off.

And in answer to the other people, yes I have read the Atkins book and I think it is a pile of codswallop. And I would also like to point out that anyone I know who has done it has, without exception, piled on all the weight and more afterwards. I still consider it a fad as opposed to a sustainable life change.

So Strawberry, to echo above, you should look at something SUSTAINABLE if you want to keep the weight off imho.

Karlitto

Miss Fluff wrote: »

If you're losing 8lbs a week I would be concerned about loose and flabby skin, especially when you have so much to lose and you are loosing it that quickly.

I also think, and this is not meant to offend, merely stating fact, that if you reach 140.6 Kg then you clearly have issues with food and specifically overeating. So while the weightloss must be so satisfying for you and your self esteem (and I applaud you for doing something about it), what then is to stop you reverting back to old ways once you reintroduce carbs, gradually or otherwise? Didn't they get you into trouble in the first place? Wouldn't you be better cutting out refined carbs and leaving in the healthy ones on an ongoing basis? Sure, the weightloss will be slower but you've a better chance of keeping it off.

And in answer to the other people, yes I have read the Atkins book and I think it is a pile of codswallop. And I would also like to point out that anyone I know who has done it has, without exception, piled on all the weight and more afterwards. I still consider it a fad as opposed to a sustainable life change.

So Strawberry, to echo above, you should look at something SUSTAINABLE if you want to keep the weight off imho.

Fair point about the skin, I will deal with that when I get to it, but it's not a problem just yet. As I said, I am working out again, so this will somewhat counter it with so much repetative skin movements.

The thing with me and why I reached such a high weight is simple

I did martial arts for 15 years, after the first 5 years it got incredibly intense as well as body building (I was quite young at the time), I was about 17 stone at the age of 16/17, but trust me, not a lick of fat. I was doing several different styles of martial arts for many years at the same time, so was extremely fit and such. I think the problem came when I stopped as I didn't think about it, but kept eating the same as I did when training, so, obviously not being active, the extra energy which would have burned up when training was just turning to fat.

It was "overeating", but not in the sense of eating out of bordom or anything, I didn't suddenly start eating more than normal, just became inactive with teh same diet....which, I would warn people to be very careful of.

Strawberry_Kiss

Thanks everyone for ye're opinions, I did look at the Atkins diet but it really wouldnt be something i could do and keep up, I guess i dont really want to 'go on' a diet as such, I simply want to change my diet so i am getting the best from my food and excercise and that i can reach and maintain a healthy weight rather than yo-yo ing.

So my question now is, i have cut sweets, chocolate, biscuits - all junk basically, bread, pasta, spuds kind of all the obvious high carbs and white sugar. Ive been having fat free yoghurts and fruit for breakfast, scambled eggs, home made soup (using just veg, veg stock and cauliflower to thicken it) for lunch, and crust free quiches, salads and bakes i found recipes for on a low carb website for dinners. Also ive had a cup of cocoa or some sugar free Jelly as a treat on sat and sunday.

Im walking for 30 mins 4 times a week also. Is this enough for me to lose weight??

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Apparently so i weighed in a stone less than last thursday im sure the majority was water weight but at least im doing something right